Big, new 99 Ranch Market in Hackensack shows Chinese eat every part of the animal

Duck Tongue, above, and Duck Feet and Pork Snout, below, are among the unusual items at 99 Ranch Market, a new Chinese supermarket in Hackensack's Home Depot Shopping Center.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- The expensive, edible bird nest in Chinese Bird's Nest Soup is made from the solidified saliva of cave-dwelling birds.

Duck tongues and feet, pig snouts and brains, and snakes are other unusual items commonly used in the Chinese kitchen.

I've long heard the Chinese eat every part of the animal, and that was readily apparent on my first visit to 99 Ranch Market in the Home Depot Shopping Center on Saturday afternoon, though I didn't see any snakes for sale.

The big, brightly lit Chinese supermarket, which opened on Wednesday, is the closest you can get to Chinatown without leaving New Jersey.

And it's big news in Bergen County, where H Mart and other Korean supermarkets have dominated for decades.

Chinese-Americans have had only King Fung Supermarket on Kinderkamack Road in River Edge in which to shop, but after two major renovations since 2009, that place is closed again.

Cantonese-style dim sum are available in the food court, above and below.

Two specialties from mainland China are Cold Jelly Noodles and Northern Fried Shredded Pancakes, above, and a Meat Wrap, below.

Customers can use a large foam container to assemble a combination meal of Chinese favorites from this steam table for $8.99.

Hong Kong-style Whole Roast Ducks, Roast Pork and Barbecued Spare Ribs.

Food court

Judging from the lines I saw on Saturday, a big draw at 99 Ranch Market is the mouth-watering prepared food available in the food court:

I saw Cantonese-style dim sum, specialties from mainland China, Thai and Malaysian food, and sweet buns and cakes, all available for takeout or dining in.

There's more: Hong Kong-style whole roast ducks ($21.88 each), roast pork and barbecued pork spare ribs, which you see displayed in every Chinatown you've ever visited; and a steam table with Chinese favorites you can buy as a combination meal for $8.99.

And another stand offers a rice porridge called congee with scallops, fish fillet, sliced pork, preserved egg or chicken ($6.50 to $7.25); and soups with shrimp wontons or noodles.

Go fish

The seafood department is a winner, offering live crawfish, crabs, lobster and fish, as well as plenty of fresh fish on ice. 

There is no charge to have the crustaceans steamed, but you can also ask to have live or fresh fish cleaned and fried "regular" or "crispy"

The supermarket also has a liquor license, though none of the bottles of sake and beer I saw can be sold on Sundays before noon.

On Saturday, my wife spent some time in the store's boutique, testing Korean skin-care products.

Fresh fish on ice included Shark ($2.99 a pound), above, and Strawberry Grouper ($7.99 a pound), below, which I've never seen in a fish market before.

The eggs from wild-caught salmon were being offered for $49.99 a pound.

A great seafood meal

This morning, I returned to 99 Ranch Market to assemble our Sunday dinner:

I bought 2.2 pounds of live Crawfish for a boil ($4.99 a pound); trays of Fried Fish and Shrimp Balls from Taiwan for a noodle soup I'll make at home (about $10), and two whole Porgies, which I asked to have cleaned and fried crispy (about $5.50).

For an appetizer, I picked up three kinds of shrimp dim sum, 9 pieces altogether (3 for $2.90).

The Chinese market doesn't offer a discount card like ShopRite or a cash-rebate card like H Mart, but after spending more than $26 today on live or fresh seafood, I received a $1 coupon for the bakery or hot food.

Which is bigger?

California-based 99 Ranch Market was established in 1984, and with more than 50 locations, claims to be "the largest Asian supermarket chain in the United States."

But Han Ah Reum, which opened its first market in Queens in 1982, has more than 60 stores, including 6 H Marts in Bergen County.

Han Ah Reum, now based in Lyndhurst, opened a new H Mart in Paramus in May, but unexpectedly closed the Englewood H Mart, shocking many hundreds of loyal Jamaican-American and other non-Korean residents who had shopped there since that supermarket opened in 1992.

Although the many H Marts I've patronized have an edge on low prices, the new 99 Ranch Market in Hackensack is clearly a better Asian supermarket.

The 59,170-square-foot Hackensack supermarket once was a Pathmark, but that store closed in 2011.

Details

99 Ranch Market is at 450 Hackensack Ave., Hackensack, in the Home Depot Shopping Center; 1-201-489-8899. Open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. Website: Hackensack is our newest store

See: At new H Mart, high prices,

 not many organics

Two more item in the meat case at 99 Ranch Market are Pork Tongue, and containers of Pork Brains, not shown.

Silkie Chickens are a highly prized breed of chicken that has beautiful, silky white plumage and startlingly black skin, according to Kitchen.com. They are found in China, India and Southeast Asia.

A Silkie Chicken (photo credit: The Happy Chicken Coop).

Taiwan Spinach is one of three varieties of spinach I saw in the produce department. Unfortunately, 99 Ranch Market has only a small selection of organic produce.

The store's coupon policy is explained in the vestibule.

Food matters: Tilapia virus, saturated fat in a bottle, a vital kitchen tool and more

WILD BREAKFAST: There is absolutely no reason to eat farmed fish when North Jersey supermarkets and restaurants offer an abundance of wild-caught fish, including these broiled whiting fillets served with eggs, home fries and toast ($7) at the Golden Grill, 1379 Teaneck Road, Teaneck.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

Tilapia Lake Virus is decimating the popular farmed fish in Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, Israel and Thailand.

Imported farmed tilapia, which is widely available in North Jersey markets and restaurants, is the second-most traded aquaculture species (after carp), and one of the world's most important fish for human consumption, according to SeafoodSource.com.

Tilapia Lake Virus "is a newly emerging and highly contagious virus associated with significant mortalities in tilapia, which is spreading among both farmed and wild stocks," according to the online report.

"The virus belongs to the same family of viruses as infectious salmon anemia, which has caused considerable losses to the salmon farming industry."

The report quotes the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization as saying the virus doesn't pose any risk to human health, "but the loss of fish through mortalities poses a concern for global food security and nutrition."

"The low price of tilapia, its omnivorous diet, tolerance to high-density farming methods; and previously strong resistance to disease help to make this fish an important protein source, especially in developing countries and for poorer consumers," says reporter Nicki Holmyard.

GREEK TO ME: A grilled wild Sockeye Salmon fillet from Costco Wholesale with pesto, non-fat Greek yogurt and fresh herbs, served cold with a homemade tzatziki sauce (non-fat Greek yogurt, water, minced garlic, chopped cucumbers, extra-virgin olive oil, fresh lemon juice and fresh mint and oregano).

Go wild

The good news is that a wide variety of wild fish, both whole and fillets, are available in North Jersey at big and small stores, including Costco Wholesale in the Teterboro Landing Shopping Center off of Route 46, The Fish Dock  on Closter Dock Road in Closter; and H Marts in Ridgefield, Little Ferry, Englewood and Fort Lee.

Until early October, the Teterboro Costco is offering fresh wild salmon as an alternative to artificially colored farmed salmon, most of which is raised with harmful human antibiotics.

Sale on grass-fed beef

Starting on Sunday, ShopRite supermarkets are offering fresh, free-range, grass-fed Australian Whole Beef Tenderloin for Filet Mignon at $6.99 a pound with a store card, a discount of $3 a pound.

Typically, the whole beef tenderloin from Nature's Reserve weighs 5 pounds or more. You can cut it into individual filet mignons or slice it thin for Korean-style barbecue, and freeze it for later use.

BAD FAT: If you're not getting enough artery clogging saturated fat in your diet, the ShopRite on Forest Avenue and Route 4 in Paramus sells it by the bottle. Ghee is clarified butter, which is used in many Asian Indian, Arabic and Iranian dishes.

MORE FATS: Bottled Beef Tallow, Pork Fat, Pork Lard and Duck Fat also are available at the Paramus ShopRite.

UNNATURAL TASTE: Dannon's Oikos Blended Greek Yogurt has only 6 grams of fat per container, the lowest I've found, but it tastes as if it has an artificial ingredient. These containers were on sale at the Paramus ShopRite for $1 each, but at the Teterboro Costco, an instant coupon lowered the price for 18 containers to 50 cents each.

NO ADDED SUGAR: Finding bottled pasta sauces without added sugar is getting harder all the time, but Whole Foods Market's 25-ounce jar of 365 Everyday Value Marinara Pasta Sauce for $1.99 is made without the sweet stuff -- which has the potential to clog heart arteries just like animal fat -- and is free of genetically modified ingredients (GMOs).

DON'T CLEAN UP WITHOUT IT: I keep this kitchen tool handy, hanging on my dish rack, to scrape off bits of food on plates and silverware that can clog dishwasher filters or for removing burned food in pots and pans. I've had it for years, so don't ask me where I got it.

PREMATURE SIGN: 99 Ranch Market has already put up a sign at the Hackensack Avenue entrance to the Home Depot Shopping Center in Hackensack, but the store won't open for months, judging by the two men I saw working on Thursday in the stripped-down interior of the old Pathmark supermarket, above and below.

FROM CALIFORNIA: 99 Ranch Market, part of a Chinese-owned chain based in California, will be entering a crowded Bergen County market and competing against a large number of Korean supermarkets.

OUT OF BUSINESS: Patisserie St. Michel on Queen Anne Road in Teaneck's West Englewood Section-- the first French bakery to open in Bergen County -- closed at the beginning of the year, the merchant next door said on Thursday.

Do Bergen County food shoppers really need a bunch of big new supermarkets?

This is the entrance and wheelchair ramp to one of the stores in a new shopping center at 260 Bergen Turnpike in Little Ferry that will be anchored by a new 43,000-square-foot H Mart, which will open in the vacant half of the building where the old, tired Korean supermarket is still doing business. 

The new H Mart, not shown in this photo, is expected to open in September, but it isn't known whether the parking lot will be paved to eliminate all of the puddles and potholes that discourage shoppers from going to the old store, below.

Editor's note: As of May 2018, a new H Mart opened in Paramus, but the Chinese supermarket in Hackensack and another new H Mart in Little Ferry have been delayed.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

Before the year is out, an enormous Wegmans, two new Korean supermarkets and a Chinese supermarket will open their doors to shoppers who already have too many choices for where to spend their food dollars.

It's not as if Bergen County isn't saturated with traditional supermarkets, including ShopRite, Stop & Shop and Acme; two Costco Wholesale warehouses, two Trader Joe's; and for shoppers who insist on buying only organic and naturally raised or grown food, two Whole Foods Markets.

7 H Marts

Meanwhile, six Korean supermarkets called H Mart already operate in Bergen County -- the wealthiest in the state -- and a seventh is expected to open soon on Route 17 in Paramus.

A new Little Ferry H Mart with a food court is set to open in September, but that 43,000-square-foot supermarket will replace an older H Mart in the other half of the same building at 260 Bergen Turnpike, where Valley Fair operated for many years.

H&Y and other smaller Korean markets also operate in Bergen County.

And 99 Ranch Market, a Chinese-owned supermarket chain based in California, is expected to open in the Home Depot Shopping Center on Hackensack Avenue in Hackensack, near Route 4.

Just last month, Aldi opened a small supermarket near Sears in Hackensack.

Wegmans

Like Manhattan-based Fairway Market, Wegmans ignored Bergen County for many years, but an 108,000-square-foot behemoth, including a liquor store and burger restaurant, is scheduled to open on Sept. 24 in Montvale, near the New York State Border.

That's a 30-plus minute drive from Hackensack on either the perpetually jammed Garden State Parkway or antiquated local roads -- a trip I might venture to make once or twice a year, given all the great food shopping much closer to my home. 

The store, built on farmland bought from DePiero's Farm Stand and Greenhouses, met stiff local opposition. It will have taken more than 5 years from proposal to the scheduled grand opening.

In 2011 and 2012, I visited the nearly 140,000-square-foot Wegmans in Woodbridge, only because I worked part time in East Brunswick at the time:

Do we need a Wegmans in Bergen County? 

The biggest supermarket in New Jersey?

Last week, Whole Foods Market at Bergen Town Center in Parmaus was offering fresh wild Copper River Sockeye Salmon from Alaska for $29.99 a pound, compared to $16.99 a pound at Costco Wholesale in the Teterboro Landing Shopping Center off Route 46. 

At Whole Foods, King Salmon from the Copper River was $39.99 a pound. In other words, I bought 2.27 pounds of fresh wild Copper River Sockeye from Costco -- dinner for 3, plus leftovers -- for less than 1 pound of King Salmon from the Paramus Whole Foods.

At the Teterboro Costco today, there was a limited amount of Copper River Sockeye Salmon fillets available for $16.99 a pound, above.

For dinner tonight, I enjoyed fresh Wild Sockeye Salmon with Pesto, Greek Yogurt and Fresh Herbs.

I used a grill sprayed with oil that straddles two burners, and cooked the salmon over medium-high heat for 7 minutes to 8 minutes, turning the serving pieces once, above and below. 

  

American Littoral Society

 means coastal conservation